Following the success of businesses such as Airbnb, Rentmyitems and Zipcar, the British government has commissioned a report into the “sharing economy”, with the optimistic idea of turning the UK into a “global centre”.

The announcement was made by Matthew Hancock MP, the Minister for Business and Enterprise, at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. He said: “There’s huge economic potential for the sharing economy and I want to make sure that the UK is front and centre of that, competing with San Francisco to be the home of these young tech start-ups.